Nieuwsbrief

september 2018

“This guy in prison has written a different kind of epic. He’s stirring up something,” writes poet Nâzım Hikmet from a Turkish prison cell, reflecting ironically but sharply on his epic masterpiece Human Landscapes from My Country. In a new performance developed for steirischer herbst, Brussels-based choreographer, artist, and curator Michiel Vandevelde turns towards the dissident literary and political figure of Hikmet—a visionary modernist poet—to stage book I of Human Landscapes, his strikingly direct and ruthlessly honest account of mid-20th-century Turkey, written between 1941 and 1950, and considered by many as “social history in verse.” Capturing myriad voices from different segments of society, Hikmet breaks out of the confinement of the modernist individualistic imagination towards the more epic, popular form of the “human landscape,” without losing the fragmented and tormented vision characteristic of modernist art. Vandevelde revisits Hikmet’s condensed and cinematic verse in what he calls a “choreographed sound piece.” In a darkened, intimate setting, five actors speak Hikmet’s text, but instead of performing the actions it describes, they engage in more abstract movements. Sitting, lying down, and changing positions, together with the audience they themselves become a “human landscape,” exploring Hikmet’s conviction that human beings always have the capacity to forge their own path upwards by the sheer force of their own will.

Farbod Fathinejadfard - ShirazBeing partly Iranian and partly Belgian, Farbod feeds on his personal story for the development of his first piece. Having escaped the Iranian society, the past, present and future of Iran makes him live a paradox, that of belonging and living between two societies. It is from this paradox that he begins his research.

Rósa Ómarsdóttir – OOOphilia (working title)Rosa explores her and other humans’ relation to nature. Instead of seeing nature as a fourth wall concept, as something outside of us, something for humans to visit in their leisure time, Rósa tries to find a nature within things, herself and the environment, or a type of an ecology without nature, and in that way going away from the concept of nature again. During this research she plays with the ecology of movements, sounds, bodies, body-sounds, vocal sounds, objects, objective movements, and subjective things, where the nature is within the body and all around.

Julie Pfleiderer – SAFEResearch inspired by the film of Todd Haynes "Safe" (1995) exploring a contemporary version of inexplicable phenomena. As a hybrid experiment between performance and contemporary music it offers an immersive journey for the senses, beginning as a live concert and evolving into a sophisticated live radio play. A project by director Julie Pfleiderer, composer Oxana Omelchuk, 3 musicians from Ictus and actress Caroline Daish.

Silke Huysmans & Hannes Dereere - ResearchIn the Pacific Ocean lies the small island state of Nauru, once known as ’Pleasant Island’. The history of the island can be read as a parable of modern times. After the discovery of large phosphate supply, the island knew growth and wealth… until all the natural wealth was gone.With ’Pleasant Island’ the two theater makers continue their research into the consequences of extreme mining through documentary material and field interviews and conversations.